E-portfolios; bureaucratic?

Welcome to the Team Axia blog. The purpose of the blog is to be a forum where we can share our experiences of creating an e-portfolio to support the gathering,assessment and verification of evidence whether it be for Professional bodies or Assessment Centres. We hope you will share your experiences too. To kick start the blog we share our thoughts on a number of key issues.

There is now a general consensus that e-portfolios do reduce bureaucracy and as a result reduce the cost of delivering an NVQ. They are still a few who do not hold this view. ENTO the awarding body; not to be confused with ENTO Aberaman the Welsh football team are currently holding a series of workshops entitled 'Utilising technology in the Qualifications Framework'. One of the purposes of the workshop is to show the benefits of technology without 'the expense or bureaucracy of an 'electronic' portfolio system.'

The view of ENTO as a major influencer on the practice of Assessor and Verifiers is clearly important but it stands in direct opposition to most other awarding bodies and a growing number of assessment centres.

Rather than creating barriers it would surely be better if ENTO joined the lobby for LLUK to create a new e-assessment unit within the standards, thereby offering practitioners who are working effectively with e-portfolios a chance to have their skills recognised.